@quitesimplystella

Top Ten Tuesday – Binge Worthy Television

June 5, 2018/

Top Ten Tuesday is a Reddit classic but usually pretty specific to music, I will just be talking about whatever I want in this series; could be beauty, music, books, clothing – you get the idea. Today’s top ten will be my most binged shows and ones that I feel are worth your time (and emotional) commitment.

Gilmore Girls – Of course this show was everything when I was a tween and then heading to college but I took a chance on a re-watch this winter and it is still just as good as it was then. It is the perfect mix of idyllic fantasy and reality, there’s a lot of real life stuff that is happening in that lovely little hamlet. Some of that feeling was lost when Rory packed up and went to Yale but the story lines remained interesting and the changes worked. WTF was A Year in the Life though!? Lorelai and Luke getting together officially – Had. To. Happen but Rory just sleeping around with a bunch of old flings and then ending up pregnant?! What the shit was that plot line, I totally wanted her to end up with Jess, c’est la vie. Part of the fun watching it now is that you can sardonically laugh at all of Rory’s missteps knowing how things will turn out 😛 Also, am I the only one who didn’t realize that Dean was played by Jared Padalecki – I don’t see the resemblance!

Downtown Abbey – You can be watching this show for the tenth time and still be bawling your eyes out as much as you did the first time. It is a historical drama that chronicles the lives of the Crawley family pre and post WWI. The cast is enjoyable, the costumes are really well done and it is hard to not become invested in the characters. Apparently, a movie is in the works – I don’t actually know how I feel about that.

The Fall – There aren’t that many seasons in this series but I think that they are all 45 minutes so you get a lot of story line. Gillian Anderson plays a British DS who is on an assignment in Belfast to solve a rash of murders. She puts together that the murders are the work of a serial killer and the show follows the investigation as it closes in on Paul Spector. There’s a lot going on in this one, tons of sub-plots and you don’t know if DS Gibson was the protagonist or not by the final episode. There are allusions to tons of local issues that I had to look further into in order to understand but it is well-worth a watch and isn’t that the definition of good TV? It gets you thinking and curious about what’s going on in the world.

CSI Las Vegas – Ahhhh, yea – the OG but seriously still so good. When I was clearing out all of my physical media, I was a little bummed to relinquish my CSI collection but I can still watch my fave episodes. It’s a corny classic, if you watch any of the episodes, I recommend The Miniature Killer related ones – so good. Also though, I think this show set the precedent that all crime scenes are rife with human DNA and this isn’t always the case – I still watch the news and find myself thinking, Just CSI that shit whenever someone is kidnapped or murdered. It doesn’t work that way, people but when it does – it gets wrapped up in about 30 minutes. Also, also – all of the other CSI’s suck.

Night Gallery – I feel that this show is compared to The Twilight Zone much too often, Rod Sterling wrote many of the scripts and that makes sense but I felt that this was tamed down and campier. You get a few stories in each episode that are horror related and similar to The Twilight Zone, you see a lot of appearances by classic actors.

Sex & the City – Not even sorry about it. The show that convinced me that my late 20’s/early 30’s would be this glamorous romp full of titillating conversation, designer clothes and hunky guys. I mean, I am only 31 but am pretty certain that none of that is going to happen, I spend most of my time talking to cats or small children and the only designer clothing item I own are some Calvin Klein underwear. I’ll keep you posted though. Carrie Bradshaw was an absolute train-wreck of a character and so much of her existence was defined by who she was dating. Was she even a successful writer?! When I was actively watching the series, I wanted her to end up with Big but now I realize what a D-bag he was when I re-watch the show and cannot believe they got married. Also, for a show about single women surviving in a world full of couples, wasn’t it the ultimate blow when they all settled down and started having kids? Like, sorry ladies, you really do have to get married and do the kid thing. I’m so disgusted now, I don’t know if it deserves to be on this list.

True Detective Season I – I cannot tell you how much I wish they would’ve stuck to the same story line for the following seasons. I get what the producers are trying to do but season one was too good for that travesty of a second season. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are investigating a murder and as they start to dig deeper, uncover a series of disappearances and murders that span decades. It’s pretty shocking at parts but the story is so good, they almost die trying to get the bad guy but they get him in the end and it is epic. I love the setting, music, the cast – so good.

Mad Men – No explanation needed. Man, they made smoking look so cool. I see people smoking all of the time, they never look this cool.

The X-Files – Best way to spend a rainy day or ya know, Friday night, this show made the FBI cool. I mean, until recently when they started doing back flips on the dance floor and accidentally shooting people. WTF was that about? You had time to master the back flip but missed the day of training where they taught you how to put the safety on a gun?! Anyway, this show is awesome, the chemistry between Anderson and Duchovny is perfect, I love the whole premise of the X-Files because we know they exist.

Golden Girls – This show is actually pretty depressing but I am depending on this being a realistic interpretation of what my golden years are like because I am so there. Just 4 sassy, single gals getting into trouble – I think it deals with a lot of issues that older people face; loneliness, health issues, financial hardship – while they do it through humor, it definitely makes you think about what old age will be like.

Are there tons of other great shows out there? Sure, but this is my definitive collection of shows that I always go back to when I need a laugh or some sage life advice. Thanks for stopping by <3

quitesimplystella

People at work have been talking a lot about a series called Safe so I don’t know if that’s something you’d be into? I liked the X-files although maybe I was too young to understand some things so it would be interesting to properly watch it. Is there much of the new stuff or?